A 2.1 μm “eye-safe wavelength”, 25mJ/pulse (A/O Q-switching), 90ns/pulse Ho lidar systemhas been developed to measure atmospheric extinction coefficients, α, and backscatter coefficients, β. Range esolved values of α and β were obtained at ranges covering up to 1.5km forsevera 124 hour periods. The average values of α were on the order of 10
-3 to 10
-4m
-1 and β values were estimated on the order of 10
-5 to 10
-6 m
-1 sr
-1. The variation of β as a function ofrange was small during the period from night to early morning, but increased significantly duringthe later daytime hours. The values of β were somewhat higher from midnight to earlymorning than just after sunrise and then gradually decreased. β values exhibited good correlation with the atmospheric humidity. From these observations it was confirmed that thelidar system developed is a powerful apparatus for remote sensing of the atmosphere.
View full abstract